Allen Heard

Author: A Heard

In addition to my recent blog post on the Greenfoot element of the on-screen test, I thought I would produce a new video for the HTML part. This is a much simpler task once students are familiar with the tags. I always advise my students to do this task first to get it out of the way and allow for more time to be spent on the other tasks (Greenfoot and the Algorithm) however from September 2017 we will also have to factor in time for the Assembly Language task, but don’t worry, by the time you need it I’ll have you covered with a tutorial and an example 🙂

The video below is the HTML guide which is also linked in the PDF task here or if you are a teacher wanting to deliver this there is a powerpoint version here. The resources also include links to the raw text required for the tasks.

Working with other schools recently through my lead practitioner work with GwE, the concern was raised that there are not enough resources that adequately fully support the Greenfoot task in the on-screen test for the Computer Science GCSE. I am currently teaching this to my third cohort of students and can honestly say that each year I have tried a different way of approaching it. However this year I am adding in some extra assessment for students to undertake this task in a controlled manner in the hope of giving them a more realistic experience of a Unit 2 exam. As a result I have produced a set of video tutorials that are hopefully easy to follow for students and that they can learn in a more purposeful manner.

Having worked through the Ice Breaker task that was the scenario for the 2015 WJEC exam, students can proceed to work through the Chase task (WJEC 2016) to see if they can apply what they have learned.

The resources are online here in PDF format that include links to the video tutorials and links to the scenarios needed.

Below you will find clues to the encryption challenges, the clues are not in any specific order but relate directly in some way to the challenges. Remember, spotting patterns is key in deciphering codes, apply the knowledge from that pattern to your problem and see where it leads you.

On the 22nd March, Ysgol Bryn Elian launched the micro:bit to teachers and pupils in North Wales. This micro sized computer has 25 LEDs, a compass, input buttons, i/o contacts, an accelerometer and a low energy bluetooth antenna.

We were on air at 8:20am on BBC Good Morning Wales

Our Year 7 students had a great day, they started out by learning all about broadcasting before getting down to teaching some Year 6 students and some secondary school teachers all about the micro:bit.

Getting in the broadcasting zone

Look how professional they look

Preparing for the morning radio slot

All set for the launch

Happy Birthday micro:bit

Hive of activity

BBC Wales Today

Will demonstrating for the TV piece

The students even put together a piece for the BBC Good Evening Wales program.

I distinctly remember coding on the old BBC Micro when I was about 12, I played Repton quite a bit too! There was only one teacher in the school who knew how to work it, Mr Collier. Thanks to him he brought out the inner geek in me. Thirty years later I’m playing with the new addition in anticipation of the next generation of coders! Thanks BBC!

Groups of eager coders attended the Rhyl Summer Tech-Dojo at the end of July at St Ann’s Church. They made real working circuits using a Raspberry Pi, did lots of coding in Python particularly with Minecraft. The children especially enjoyed the Chatbot Challenge. The three events were lots of fun. I must thank Andrew Mullholand for his excellent work on PiNet which makes running a Pi network a breeze!